Hi Bill,
I had to chime in on this one too. I have noticed the same things here
in Ohio. I've been to a lot of yards in this state, and I have seen the
same things as you when it comes to cars made in the 50-60-70's. I
think we started to see a change in this attitude in the early 1980's
particularly with the K-cars. I think manufacuturers finally began to
realize people wanted cars that lasted. This of course was driven home
by Honda, when by the early 80's they began producing cars that did not
dissolve in 5 years time.
I also think this was helped by manufacturers getting away from the
-every model year is different- mentality.
These days it is hard to tell a 2000 from a 2001,2002,2003, etc. I read
the AVERAGE age of a car on the road is now 10 years. That means plenty
are older than that. I have a friend with a daily driver 87 Dodge
Daytona. It has 275,000 on it and counting. She has owned it since new!
I think another factor is materials. Todays plastics, steel and glass
are simply of a better quality and manufacture than the olders cars
were. Steel, just like tires, has evolved.
But on the downside, we now have belly button cars or appliance cars as
I like to call then. Though Honda's are well made and run forever they
are about as exciting as a refrigerator. Modern cars (with very few
exceptions) lack personality. This I believe has driven the tuner or
personalization craze that really is just people trying to breath life
into what has become plain-vanilla styling.
Other than being a Mopar guy for as long as I can remember, the reason I
was drawn to these cars (the FL's) was thier styling, or personality if
you will. It is a true tragedy that they weren't built to last longer.
They have become few and far between and it takes the dedicated efforts
of enthusists like us to keep them alive.
Thank God this group does exist and that there are people out there
willing to do that. Or the child today would have no idea what a car
with a real personality looks like!
Take Care,
Charles.
Bill K. wrote:
As supporting evidence of this, I've kind of kept notice when I go
through a junkyard when a car was last inspected or registered. In NY
you'd go by the plate through 1964, they used a window sticker 65-66,
then I believe a sticker on the plate through '70 (I can't think of
seeing a sticker between 66 and 70).
I've come across cars that were not wrecked that were driven as little
as in one case, a '60 New Yorker wagon (I think I still own that car)
that was only on the road for six years. Average last inspections
are at around 10 years old. My '57 Dodge wagon and most everything
around it had 1965 stickers on (57, 58, 59 Buicks, '58 Ford, '55 Chevy
truck) and I think the '58 Dodge convertible I sold that was two spots
over from it, also did. Another place turned up a '58 Chrysler with a
'71 sticker; I owned a '59 Olds about 15 years ago that had a '71 in
it too, although I don't think it ever was in a salvage yard.
A good solid '64 Ford 4dr had '75 VA plates on it; a '41 Pontiac coupe
had 1951 plates on it; the '30-'31 Model A sedan turned pickup I
bought had a '51 plate laying in the trash in the bed. A '46-8 DeSoto
coupe with a 1958 plate on the back. Just some random examples that I
remember from the last place I was in. One yard there was a '61
Chrysler 4dr way in the back with a 1969 Florida plate on it and 69-70
sticker still in the window. Some yards you can almost tell when the
section was filled by the plates on the cars.
Even for newer cars it's not all that much different, when I go for
parts for my beater truck even the u-pull-it places are getting
1996-2001 cars pretty regularly. I have to wonder what's going to
happen as the 10,000 or so Hyundais that Billy Fucillo has sold in
upstate NY the last 5 or 6 years, turn 10 and their warranties
expire. Hopefully Roth Steel will install an express lane right into
the shredder -
I would think that you might find cars lasting longer outside the salt
belt, but my own findings don't seem to support that. The road salt
really ate up the cars, to the point that sometimes you can tell which
ones were single exhaust and which were duals, by wether or not both
frame rails are left. I've seen some good solid cars that had plates
or stickers all falling in that 10 year range, right next to cars that
were obviously rotty when they showed up with similar stickers on them.
Odometers I've glanced at seem to support milages in the
80,000-120,000 range, but I haven't paid nearly as much attention to
them.
Bill K.
----- Original Message -----
Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2007 16:26:07 -0500
From: Richard Whelan <rwhelansr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Transmission Colors and MORE
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We need to remember that "planned obsolence" was a fact of life of the =
American auto industry in the 50's and 60's. The average new car buyer =
kept his car for 3 years and perhaps put 30,000 to 50,000 miles on it =
before trading it on Detroits latest. The next buyer, either a lower =
income individual or more frugal person then purchased it for less
than =
half the original price and drove it another 30,000 to 50,000 miles =
before trading it on another 3 year old car. At that point it
generally =
ended up on a "beater lot" for $50.00-$300.00 for a 16 year old kid to =
pick up . I know because of the 3 58 Plymouths I owned in the 1963-64 =
time period the most expensive was my 58 Fury purchased for $295.00
at a =
corner Gas Station.My point is they were built to look and perform
well =
for 3 years, provide reasonably reliable transportation for 6 or 7
years =
and hit the boneyard before their 10th birthday and they were designed =
and built accordingly. Dick
----- Original Message -----=20
From: Dave=20
To: L-FORWARDLOOK@xxxxxxxxxxxxx=20
Sent: Saturday, February 10, 2007 12:46 PM
Subject: Re: [FWDLK] Transmission Colors and MORE
All:
It seems to me that after the US rebuilding countries after WWII they =
had the shiny new plants and we had the same old stuff that won the
war. =
In some cases, there have been accusations of these same governments =
subsidizing industries that were competeing with our products, namely =
automobiles.
I remember the rust buckets of the mid-sixties and I am sure that it =
was a direct result of the bean counters dictating how cars were =
designed and built. Of course, I will admit our execs didn't want to =
bend with changing forces in the industry.
Just my thoughts, maybe not too PC for some...
Dave Moore
Wallingford, CT
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